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About the Book

This book provides an up-to-date, panoramic picture of the field of intellectual styles through describing, analyzing, and integrating the major theoretical and research works on the topic. Readers will gain a broad understanding of the field--its nature, origins, historical development, theories, research, and applications, as well as the interrelationships among major theoretical constructs proposed by different theorists in the past few decades. In particular, three major controversial issues in the field are addressed by both empirical findings and literature review: styles as better versus worse or as equal in merit; styles as traits versus styles as states; and styles as different constructs versus styles as similar constructs with different style labels.

Educators will find ideas on how to improve their teaching and assessment of student performance. Student development specialists will be interested in the book because intellectual styles, as evidenced by recent studies, play a critical role in many aspects of student development including cognitive, affective, psychosocial, and career development. Psychologists will gain an understanding of an important facet of the field at the interface between cognition and personality. Managers in business will find the book relevant to such issues as effective supervision and staff training and development. The Nature of Intellectual Styles is intended for anyone--particularly researchers and students in the fields of education, psychology, and business management--who is interested in understanding intellectual styles and their effects on daily life.

Table of Contents

Contents: Preface. Introduction. Part I:The Field of Intellectual Styles. Surveying the Field of Intellectual Styles. Part II:Empirical Studies: Individual Models. Styles Research: Student Oriented. Styles Research and Applications: Teacher Oriented. Styles Research and Applications in Nonacademic Settings. Part III:Empirical Studies: Integrative Models and the Theory of Mental Self-Government. Existing Integrative Models of Styles. The Theory of Mental Self-Government and Its Research. Part IV:Intellectual Styles: Reconceptualization and Application. A Threefold Model of Intellectual Styles. Conclusions and Future Directions.

About the Series

to present the most significant contemporary theory and research on psychology as it is applied to education at all levels – elementary; secondary, and tertiary;

to present this research in a way that is relevant and accessible to both psychologists and educators;

to explore new ideas in instruction and assessment that are grounded in theory and tested in classrooms;

to inform and influence educational policy through the establishment of a solid base of theory and research rather than through the fads and fashions that come and go with the times but that have no base in the psychology of instruction;

to achieve further integration in the perspectives of education and psychology, as well as to draw together various fields of psychology in order to capitalize on their potential contributions to educational outcomes;

to explore notions of school reform that are linked to our knowledge about students’ learning, thinking, and motivation; and

to disseminate ideas from around the world, including Europe, Asia, and Africa, as well as the Americas.

This series will publish monographs and edited books that advance these goals through new and innovative contributions to educational psychology. Edited books must have a sense of coherence, contain unifying introductory and concluding chapters, and be internally consistent in scope and level of writing.

Potential authors and volume editors are encouraged to take risks and to explore with the series editors nontraditional points of vie wand methodologies. Interdisciplinary contributions involving theory and methodology from diverse fields, such as computer science, philosophy, linguistics, anthropology, and neuroscience, are especially welcome, but all contributions must be readable and interesting to psychologists and educators of varying backgrounds. Authors and editors from all around the world are encouraged to submit proposals.

Examples of topics that would be of interest include, but are not limited to, creative techniques for instruction, nontraditional forms of assessment, student learning, student motivation, organizational structure and climate, teacher education, new conceptions of abilities and achievement, analyses of cognitive structures and representations in various disciplines, expertise in teaching and administration, use of technology in the schools, at-risk children, adult education, and styles of learning and thinking.